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@BringMeMyFix
Wellllllllllllllll
IQ tests have seen a number of modifications over the years. There are versions aimed at different cultures, mainly due to a section which has sort of bog standard general knowledge questions. And adjustments are made based on things like age - we all get slower at processing beyond a certain age, so scoring 123 aged 16 would equate to a lower raw score if taking the test many years later. People tend to stay at the same centile throughout their lifespan, barring acquired cognitive impairments.
I was similarly sceptical about its worth, but having discussed the WAIS-III with a number of professionals from multi-disciplinary teams, it seems to be widely acknowledged as a very reliable indicator of cognitive ability in its broadest sense.
It's one of the principal ways in which cash-strapped authorities decide whether someone's situation is clinically significant enough for them to be allocated treatment/therapy/intervention of some kind. Raw scores are moot. It's the centile that's important. I can't rember the thresholds used, and they vary between boroughs, but people at either end of the bell/normal curve can get help i.e. significantly learning disabled or what's known as 'gifted & talented'. Both of these groups can otherwise have difficulty functioning in a society that operates around the people I like to think of as 'the norms'.
I'm glad I'm not one of them, TBH, but a little help might've been nice. Unfortunately the 80s were rubbish in that respect.